


The Phone Call Comes Later

by hangthestars



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, coda fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:41:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6981043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hangthestars/pseuds/hangthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>11.23 coda fic. Sam's phone call comes about 15 minutes later. Cas and Dean have more time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Phone Call Comes Later

**Author's Note:**

> This is still coda fic, right? In my head this happens and then the rest of the ep is exactly the same.

“Thank you.”

Cas watches as Dean turns his attention back to the road. Their conversation lingers inside the shell of the Impala.

It’s incomplete, somehow. He feels warmth, he feels _home_ now, in this car that’s been broken down and rebuilt just as often as its owners, but he feels unfinished. He waits for Dean to complete the thought, make him whole.

After a couple of seconds, he realizes it isn’t coming. His gaze trails down from Dean’s face to the bend of his arm to his hand, resting on the leather seat. The space between them feels like miles, and for a second Cas almost reaches over and hangs onto Dean to keep from drifting away. The universe is ending, isn’t it? He can feel the fabric of it pulling apart as God dies.

Did he take chances with the last moments, or continue the way they were, sharing a space and knowing for sure what Dean thinks? Cas doesn’t always understand humans, but he knows on some instinctive level that such a small gesture as reaching over and taking Dean’s hand would step over some line. 

Dean brought them out for a liquor run, but he never stops at a store. He drives right past town, and ten minutes later they’re pulling up to a lake. It’s mostly deserted; a couple of benches dot the edge of the water, some ducks lazily float across the water, but nobody is out. The light is dim as a sunset, but with none of the warm orange glow that comes from sinking in the sky.

When Dean gets out of the car, Cas realizes why they’re here: Dean wants to spend his last day in a quiet place. With _him_.

Cas follows suit, climbing out of the Impala’s seat and quietly closing the door. He looks at Dean over the top of the car and says, “Here we are again, at the end of the world.”

“The universe this time,” Dean replies, smirking a little. “Finally stepped it up.”

“About time.” Cas almost smiles back before he pushes away from the car, wandering toward the water’s edge. He hears Dean’s heavy footsteps behind him and thinks again, _Do I say something or do we continue?_

He expects Dean to sit, but they end up standing in the dirt together, nearly stepping in the water. Their backs are to the dying sun, watching the darkness creeping in the edges of the horizon. At first they’re quiet again. Dean is looking forward, so he doesn’t notice when Castiel glances over again. This is the last time he’ll be able to do this, looking over Dean Winchester. They’ve known each other for less than an instant, as far as an angel’s lifetime goes, but they’ve changed so much. Dean is heavier now in the shoulders, the wrinkles at the edges of his eyes deeper. Castiel has been human and back again and only just now found his home.

He thinks of Hannah just then, giving up her human vessel out of respect. Urges aren’t for angels, her vessel’s feelings too private and person to claim. But this isn’t Jimmy’s body anymore, this is _his_ , and he’s about to lose it so soon.

_Do I say something or do we continue?_

“You think there’ll be another creation?” Dean says, hanging between thoughtful and sad. “After all this, without God or the Darkness. Is this just _it_?”

“I don’t know,” Cas answers, his voice quiet. “There’s an energy to the universe. Even if God and the Darkness are gone, I don’t know if that energy can ever truly be destroyed.” He watches Dean take in a long breath and let it out. “But it won’t be the same.”

Dean finally looks back, meeting Cas’s eyes. Most humans, he’s learned, are unnerved by eye contact for more than a second or two, but Dean doesn’t shrink away anymore. After a couple of long moments, Dean claps his hand on Cas’s shoulder, his tight grip betraying his nerves. 

“I missed you.”

_Say something_.

Cas glances at Dean’s hand before looking back up at his face. Dean’s expression is calm, but just barely. The hint of an uneasy downturn pulls at his mouth, his jaw tense. His nostrils are almost flaring as he forces his breath to stay even. He’s falling apart and trying so hard to be brave, and for who, for Sam, who isn’t here? For Cas? For himself?

Dean is holding on so tight that Cas finally feels his feet on the ground.

_Say something, say something, say something---_

Cas can’t think of any words. Instead he steps in, bringing a hand up to cradle the back of Dean’s neck, his thumb resting against his stubbled jaw. 

He kisses him, a little too hard and a little too messy. It takes him another second to realize he should close his eyes. Dean makes a noise of surprise, then relaxes, and then he moves his hand from Cas’s shoulder to his hair.

Then suddenly it’s as if Dean notices the space between them and crushes their bodies together, pulling Cas in by the front of his coat and taking a fistful of the fabric at the small of his back. It’s breathless and painful. Dean is still _shaking_ , no matter how tightly Cas holds him. 

The kiss breaks and Dean buries his face against Cas’s shoulder. (Shaking, still shaking.) Cas holds onto him and almost wishes that the world would end now, so this would be the last thing he’d ever feel, the slope of Dean’s back and the dying light on the horizon the last things he’d ever see.

He never does say something. Neither of them do.

And then Dean’s phone rings.


End file.
